See Memoirs of Sir Ewen Cameron of Lochiel (Bannatyne Club, 1842).
CAMERONIANS, the name given to that section of the Scottish Covenanters (q.v.) who followed Richard Cameron (q.v.), and who were chiefly found among those who signed the Sanquhar Declaration in 1680. Known also as “Society Men,” “Sanquharians” and “Hillmen,” they became a separate church after the religious settlement of 1690, taking the official title of Reformed Presbyterians in 1743. Societies of Cameronians for the maintenance of the Presbyterian form of worship were formed about 1681; their testimony, “The Informatory Vindication,” is dated 1687; and they quickly became the most pronounced and active adherents of the covenanting faith. Holding fast to the two covenants, the National Covenant of 1580 and the Solemn League and Covenant of 1643, they wished to restore the ecclesiastical order which had existed between 1638 and 1649, and were dissatisfied with the moderate character of the religious settlement of 1690. Refusing to take the oaths of allegiance to an “uncovenanted” ruler, or to exercise any civil function, they passed through a period of trial and found some difficulty in maintaining a regular ministry; but in 1706 they were reinforced by some converts from the established church. They objected strongly to the proposal for the union of England and Scotland, and were suspected of abetting a rising which took place in the west of Scotland in 1706; but there appears to be no foundation for the statement that they intrigued with the Jacobites, and they gave no trouble to the government either in 1715 or in 1745. In 1712 they publicly renewed the covenants at Auchensauch Hill in Lanarkshire, and in 1743 their first presbytery was constituted at Braehead, while a presbytery was formed in North America in 1774. In 1863 the Cameronians, or Reformed Presbyterians, decided to inflict no penalties upon those members who had taken the oaths, or had exercised civil functions, and consequently a few congregations seceded. In 1876 the general body of the Reformed Presbyterians united with the Free Church of Scotland, leaving the few seceding congregations as the representatives of the principles of the Cameronians. In the British army the first battalion of the Cameronians (Scottish Rifles) is directly descended from the “Cameronian guard,” which, composed of Cameronians, was embodied by the convention parliament in 1689, and was afterwards employed to restore order in the Highlands.
See J.H. Burton, History of Scotland, vols. vii. and viii. (Edinburgh, 1905); and A. Lang, History of Scotland, vol. iv. (Edinburgh, 1907).
CAMEROON[1] (Ger. Kamerun), a German protectorate in West Africa, bounded W. by the Atlantic, N.W. by British Nigeria, N. by Lake Chad, E. and S. by French Congo, save for a short distance on the south where it is conterminous with the Spanish Muni river settlement.
Boundaries and Area.—The sea frontier extends from the Rio del Rey, just where the great bend of the coast-line east to south begins, forming the Bight of Biafra, to the Campo river, a distance of 200 m. The north-western boundary, laid down in an agreement between Germany and Great Britain on the 15th of November 1893, runs from the mouth of the Rio del Rey to the “rapids” of the Cross river in 8° 48′ E. Thence it is continued in a north-east line towards Yola, as far as the confines of that town. The boundary is then deflected south so as to leave Yola in British territory, turning north again to cross the Benue river at a spot 3 m. west of where the Faro joins the Benue. From this point the frontier goes north-east to the border of Lake Chad, 35 m. east of the meridian of the town of Kuka. The southern shores of Lake Chad for a distance of some 40 m. belong to the protectorate. The south and east boundaries were laid down by agreements between Germany and France on the 24th of December 1885, the 15th of March 1894 and the 18th of April 1908. The south boundary runs in a fairly direct line from the mouth of the Campo river to the river Dscha (or Ngoko), which it follows to its confluence with the Sanga. The eastern boundary runs from the Sanga irregularly north to 10° N., where it approaches the British frontier at Yola, so that at its narrowest part the protectorate is little more than 50 m. across. From 10° N. the frontier turns eastwards to the Logone, thence going north-east to the Shari river, which it follows to Lake Chad. The protectorate has an area of about 190,000 sq. m. Estimated population (1908) 3,500,000, of whom 1128 were whites.
Origin of the Name.—The name Camarões was first given by the Portuguese discoverers of the 15th and 16th centuries to a large bay or estuary, lying south-east of a great mountain close to the sea, met with after passing the Niger delta. This estuary they called the Rio dos Camarões (the river of Prawns), from the abundance of the crustacea found therein. The name Camarões was also used to designate the neighbouring mountains. The English usage until nearly the end of the 19th century was to confine the term “the Cameroons” to the mountain range, and to speak of the estuary as the Cameroons river. Locally it was often called “the Bay.” On their acquisition of the country in 1884 the Germans extended the use of the name in its Teutonic form— Kamerun—to the whole protectorate.
Physical Features.—Cameroon forms the north-west corner of the great Central African plateau. This becomes evident in its eastern section, where are wide-spreading plains, which farther west assume an undulating character, and gradually merge into a picturesque mountain range. This range, running from north to south, is flanked by a parallel and lower range in the west, with a wide valley between. In the north-west the Upper Guinea mountains send their eastern spurs across the boundary, and from a volcanic rift, which runs south-west to north-east, the Cameroon peak towers up, its summit 13,370 ft. high. This mountain, whose south-western base is washed by the Atlantic, is the highest point on the western side of Africa, and it alone of the great mountains of the continent lies close to the coast. From any vantage point, but especially from the sea, it presents a magnificent spectacle, while some 30 m. westward rises Clarence peak, the culminating point of Fernando Po. With an area, on an isolated base, of 700 to 800 sq. m., Cameroon mountain has but two distinct peaks, Great Cameroon and Little Cameroon (5820 ft.), which is from foot to top covered with dense forest. The native designation of the highest peak is Mongo-ma-Loba, or the Mountain of Thunder, and the whole upper region is usually called Mongo-mo-Ndemi, or the Mountain of Greatness. On the principal summit there are a group of craters. In 1909 the mountain was in eruption and huge streams of lava were ejected. Inland the Chebchi and Mandara mountains indicate the direction and extent of the rift.